Familton Side Stories
by TheTinyDiamond
Summary: A collection of short normally one-off stories based around the Familton characters with no effect on the original plot. Rated T for Language Collab with Nerdywolfie


"Come on son, you just gotta reel it in a bit more and that fish will be as good as ours!" "Alright I get it, I'm trying,okay?" one of Washington's sons, Alexander Hamilton growled, "Hey, hey, Alex, I don't know what happened to you today, but I don't much like the tone you're giving me. I'm sorry you aren't having as good a time catching fish as I usually do when I come here, but it is your' first time going fishing after all. I know you're at wit's end but you have a fish on your line so just keep reeling it in." The water started to get rougher as something bumped into the boat and startled Alex but at the rate of how the day was going Alex didn't give a shit care at all. He was forced to wake up extremely early, put on stupid fishing gear and wasn't even able to hang out with his closest friends on a Saturday of all days (he would have settled for talking to Charles if he had to) On top of that, to add insult to injury, Alex didn't know how to swim and having been forced to spend an entire afternoon surrounded by a body of water wasn't helping his nerves but he wasn't about to tell Washington anytime soon.

However, he was jolted out of his thoughts when a particularly forceful bump caused Alex to come closer to falling out of the boat. When Washington had seen his adopted son almost fall out the boat, he leapt into action, bringing him away from the water's edge by putting his arm around him but Alex had pushed him away, leaving his father with a shocked and almost hurt expression at his son's actions (this wasn't the worst Alex was capable of, however, after doing nearly every sensible thing in his power to bond with Alexander for three months it hurt more than the hours or even days for which he wouldn't see Alex other than to eat, drink and go to the bathroom.) It seemed as though the fish his son had hooked was intent on taking the boat down with it because the sporadic bumps gradually turned into a more menacing series of rams, and as the boat swayed increasingly heavily because it couldn't fully stop before the next ramming, Washington couldn't notice the scared expression on his son's face because he was busy trying to restabilize the boat.

"Alex, stop trying to reel the fish in, I can see you aren't making any progress, just let me break the line for you"

"No! I'm gonna reel it in like y-". And then they capsized.

Just before he went fully under, he could hear a panicked cry of "Daddy!". Wait, what? He didn't have time to dwell on it however because he instinctively began swimming as hard as he could to get to the surface.

However, when he reached the surface, and didn't see his son he began to panic, and attempted to look as deep into the water as he could. That was when his blood ran cold. He saw his Alex sinking, either unconscious, (which was unlikely,) or unable to swim, (which, based on what he had been able to glean from Alex, made sense, as his family didn't take many breaks.) His adrenaline immediately kicked in and he took a deep breath and dived back under to get Alex, as he attempted to see through the muck, he spotted him and began desperately swimming faster than he thought possible. He grabbed Alex and began swimming as fast as possible with about 45 pounds of dead weight as his lungs began to burn, (he could only imagine how Alex was feeling now), he burst upwards into the air but rather than relax and breathe, he still needed to get Alex to shore and make sure he was ok.

As soon as the touched the shoreline he quickly but gently put Alex down and began CPR. After what was probably at most thirty seconds, but what felt like an eternity, Alex's eyes fluttered open, and because he was still dazed, quietly mumbled "daddy,", and then Alex's eyes flew open.

"No, no, nonononono." He began to say, rapidly increasing in speed and volume,

"Hey, Alex, relax, I'm here, ", the older man repeats quietly, attempting to calm and quiet his son, and then he changes the monologue,

"It's ok Alex, You're gonna be fine, I'm here, daddy's here."

When the child heard the phrase "daddy's here", he quickly begins to tear up again, and go back into the panic attack.

What? What had he done wrong? Then it hit him. Alex wasn't consciously calling him Daddy, and would probably just have called the nearest male figure "Daddy" regardless of whether or not they looked like they could kill Alex on the spot.

Oh, that hurt. But as Alex was his main focus at the moment, he stopped focusing on his own sadness and instead directed it towards helping his five-year-old son, who was at the moment a million feet deep in a panic attack, and didn't look likely to come out anytime soon. So he just continued trying to comfort him as he attempted to get his son as far away from the shore as possible while also never leaving his son's side, (which meant he couldn't get Alex home because Alex couldn't sit in the passenger seat and he definitely couldn't drive from the back) so his only hope was to pray that Alex's panic subsided quickly, and they could go back, retrieve the boat and drive home, preferably before dark even though it took about an hour to get here and between the few hours they spent fishing and about twenty-five minutes of trying to calm Alex down, even with their progress, he assumed it would be at least another hour before they made it home.

It was this very message that he texted Martha:

George: We're gonna be home late.

Martha: Why?

GW: It's a long story.

MW: Care to explain?

GW: Not now.

MW: Ok…? See you later then.

And then he refocused on his son, changing from monologuing to instead using grounding techniques to try and calm his son.

"Alex, listen: I need you to just try to slow your breathing and look at me. You're going to be fine. Alright. " Washington stated, attempting to reassure his son. Feeling that his son had at this point been sufficiently calmed he continued, "Listen buddy, I need to go get the boat, so you need to be brave for a second. If you don't want to stop seeing me you can get out and watch from the car, but this is a job you can't really help me with, ok?"

"Ok, d-" Alex said quietly, voice hoarse because of the constant whimpers and cries of panic, catching himself before he restarted his panic attack, and setback all Washington had just done.

As Washington walked towards the docks to retrieve the boat, he silently thought to himself: 'I wish he was comfortable enough around me to just say it.'. But a larger, more sensible voice in his head, refuted it pointing out that 'You were lucky enough to get this far. Do not destroy what trust you've managed to instill in Alex. Just do your job and get back to the car."

Washington then retrieved the boat and tied it back to the dock as the boat's owner had instructed him to do when he and Alex were done with the boat.

After this he turned around and began to stride back to the car, opened the trunk and then handed Alex one of the towels he brought incase they got wet like they did, gave Alex a semi-tight hug, started the car and began driving home.

Later that night

"So George, why did you and Alex come home late?"

"We got soaked when the boat flipped, and Alex accidentally called me Daddy before he went under and then he went into a panic attack and I had to calm him down and tie up the boat before we left, most of which was calming Alex." George explained, "I just want to let Alex know that it's fine to call me Daddy, and you Mom, or whatever he wants to call you. I just want him to finally understand and be comfortable around us. I just want him to be a son Martha, I just want him to be a son."

"I want it too George. I just don't know if he is ready." Martha agreed, before being hit with a sudden realization, "Wait, George. What if he wants it, but he doesn't think we do? I mean based off what he has told us about his parents on Nevis, his father didn't exactly approve of him calling him Daddy in any of his clear memories and by extension, he just stopped calling his mother Mommy, even though he described his mother as kind, and caring, and she seems like she would have been more than happy to have him continue."

"My God, Martha you might be right."

12:00, The Next Day

"Alex, Charlie, come in for lunch."

"But Mom!" Charles whined, as Alex whined a similar "But Mrs. Washington!"

"No buts, you two have played for a while and I made lunch. And Alex, we need to talk afterwards."

Alex was scared as he ran in for lunch, but repressed it out of habit.

"Come on Alex, you don't want to miss out on chicken tenders and pie, right?"

"Yay! Chicken fingers!" Charles yelled,

"Charlie, inside voice please."

"Sorry mom."

"It's ok, just be quieter next time Charles."

And so the Washingtons ate lunch, and when they were finished Martha got up with George and told Alex to come into the sitting room. When they had sat down, Martha began to say; "Alex, George told me about what happened yesterday on the fishing trip, and I just want-"

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so, sorry. I didn't mean to call Mr. Washington 'Daddy'." Alex blurted, embarrassed

"Hey, hey, Alex. I said 'Daddy's here' for a reason. I've been trying to get you to call me daddy since we adopted you, and Martha has been trying to get you to call her mommy Alex. It's the only thing we'd wanted from you from the beginning." Alex's daddy said, reassuring him.

"W-What?" Alex was astonished.

"Yeah. Yeah. " George was now crouching to be at eye level with Alex.

"You want me to call you Daddy?" Alex turned to Martha, "And you've wanted me to call you Mommy?"

"Yes Alex. We've always wanted you to be comfortable enough around us to call us your parents."

"Ok, Daddy, ok Mommy."


End file.
